Production of Biodiesel from Waste Cooking Oil

Biodiesel is among one of the environment friendly and nontoxic alternative fuels that is acquired from renewable energy sources. Exploration of new methods for biodiesel production has become a key area of interest in research due to the environmental benefits of biodiesel and the fluctuating prices in fuel. The present work exemplifies the transesterification of used cooking oil to biodiesel. The feedstock was obtained from the mess of St. Joseph's College of Engineering, Chennai. The reactant used here was methanol and the base catalyst used was KOH. The study parameters were catalyst concentration, temperature, reaction time and methanol content. The characteristic properties of the produced biodiesel like Flash Point, Fire Point, Purity, Kinematic Viscosity, Ash, Calorific value, Cetane Number, Density, Acid value, Iodine Value was studied using various laboratory equipments. The biodiesel produced was blended with petroleum diesel to run the unmodified diesel engine which had an rpm of 1500. The emission of biodiesel was tested to be 1.32 and the smoke density was less than 1.58 which is petroleum diesel smoke density and this was approved by Regional transport officer.